Arsene Wenger accepts contract delay cost Arsenal the Champions League as he tries to fix slow Premier League starts

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Arsene Wenger has acknowledged that the uncertainty over his contract renewal last season probably cost Arsenal the chance of playing in the Champions League, with the manager admitting “maybe I made a mistake.”

Arsenal allowed Wenger’s contract to wind down into its final weeks before announcing a new deal, though by then the season had already finished and Arsenal had been consigned to a fifth-place finish in the Premier League, resulting in their 20-year run in the Champions League under Wenger coming to an end this season.

Wenger has already confirmed that he will favour the Premier League over the Europa League campaign by rotating players in Europe, despite the offer of a Champions League place for the winners as Manchester United benefitted from last season.

But after beating Chelsea in the curtain-raising Community Shield on Sunday thanks to a penalty shootout, Wenger once again reflected on the decision to keep his contract renewal on ice despite Arsenal’s form in 2017 dropping off emphatically.

“It's down to us to put a positive atmosphere around the team,” Wenger said. “A lot was created by my own situation. Maybe I made a mistake.”

Wenger agreed a new two-year contract on the promise that he would prove to the Arsenal board that he is capable of change and bringing the club up to scratch to challenge the likes of Chelsea, Manchester United and Manchester City, who have dominated the Premier League since Arsenal’s last title success in 2004.

Despite winning the Community Shield in three of the last four seasons, Arsenal have been notoriously slow starters, having lost to Liverpool on the opening day of the Premier League season last year, West Ham in 2015/16 and failed to win four of their first six league games the year before.

"Overall I believe that it's down to us," Wenger added. "The trend has always to come from the team. We had some bad starts recently, the last four years, in the first game of the Premier League.

"But we had the intensity in the games in our preparation that is needed to be ready."